1862–63

Enters Harvard Law School (Dane Hall). Wilky enlists in the Massachusetts 44th Regiment, and later in Colonel Robert Gould Shaw’s 54th, one of the first black regiments. Summer 1863, Bob joins the Massachusetts 55th, another black regiment, under Colonel Hollowell. James withdraws from law studies to try writing. Sends unsigned stories to magazines. Wilky is badly wounded and brought home to Newport in August.

1864

Family moves from Newport to 13 Ashburton Place, Boston. First tale, “A Tragedy of Error” (unsigned), published in Continental Monthly (Feb. 1864). Stays in Northampton, Massachusetts, early August–November. Begins writing book reviews for North American Review and forms friendship with its editor, Charles Eliot Norton, and his family, including his sister Grace (with whom he maintains a long-lasting correspondence). Wilky returns to his regiment.

1865

First signed tale, “The Story of a Year,” published in Atlantic Monthly (March 1865). Begins to write reviews for the newly founded Nation and publishes anonymously in it during next fifteen years. William sails on a scientific expedition with Louis Agassiz to the Amazon. During summer James vacations in the White Mountains with Minnie Temple and her family; joined by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and John Chipman Gray, both recently demobilized. Father subsidizes plantation for Wilky and Bob in Florida with black hired workers. (The idealistic but impractical venture fails in 1870.)

1866–68

Continues to publish reviews and tales in Boston and New York journals. William returns from Brazil and resumes medical education. James has recurrence of back ailment and spends summer in Swampscott, Massachusetts. Begins friendship with William Dean Howells. Family moves to 20 Quincy St., Cambridge. William, suffering from nervous ailments, goes to Germany in spring 1867. “Poor Richard,” James’s longest story to date, published in Atlantic Monthly (June–Aug. 1867). William begins intermittent criticism of Henry’s storytelling and style (which will continue throughout their careers). Momentary meeting with Charles Dickens at Norton’s house. Vacations in Jefferson, New Hampshire, summer 1868. William returns from Europe.

1869–70

Sails in February for European tour. Visits English towns and cathedrals. Through Nortons meets Leslie Stephen, William Morris, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, John Ruskin, Charles Darwin, and George Eliot (the “one marvel” of his stay in London). Goes to Paris in May, then travels in Switzerland in summer and hikes into Italy in autumn, where he stays in Milan, Venice (Sept.), Florence, and Rome (Oct. 30–Dec. 28). Returns to England to drink the waters at Malvern health spa in Worcester because of digestive troubles. Stays in Paris en route and has first experience of Comédie Française. Learns that his beloved cousin, Minnie Temple, has died of tuberculosis.

1870–72

Returns to Cambridge in May. Travels to Rhode Island, Vermont, and New York to write travel sketches for The Nation. Spends a few days with Emerson in Concord. Meets Bret Harte at Howells’s home April 1871. Watch and Ward, his first novel, published in Atlantic Monthly (Aug.–Dec. 1871). Serves as occasional art reviewer for the Atlantic, January–March 1872.

1872–74